Leigh Anne Lester

BIOGRAPHY

Leigh Anne Lester, Shreveport, Louisiana, b. 1966

In 1989 Leigh Anne Lester moved to San Antonio and in 1993 she received her BFA in Painting from University of Texas in San Antonio. Once she graduated she set up studio in the Blue Star Arts Complex and since has co-founded and co-curated the cactus bra SPACE that closed in 2012 after 19 years of operation.

Leigh Anne Lester’s work addresses the “place between the genesis of genetic modification and its aftereffects.” Her drawings are layers of semi-transparent drafting film with a historical botanical drawn on each layer. The transparency of the drafting film allows the line of each botanical to optically blend with the next layer. Elements of each of the plants mix and tangle their visual attributes intermingling disparate species of flora. Floating cells are layered with graphite drawings of separate distorted offspring plants with their color drained, implying a cellular, morphological struggle for resolution.

Lester’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States. Her solo exhibitions include Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX; Artpace, San Antonio, TX; Institute of Texan Cultures, San Antonio, TX; Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, TX; and the International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL. She is the recipient of prestigious awards including the 2011 Hunting Prize and the Artist Foundation of San Antonio in 2007. In 2015, she was selected to participate in the Berlin Residency Program by Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in partnership with Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany. Lester’s artworks are in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Texas at San Antonio.